@saints: "The following brief lesson from Warner Pidgeon teaches scripturally that 
salvation, through God's Gace is by faith in Jesus Christ who is our Lord 
and Savior.
May God bless,
Carl
my website  <url>
my blog  <url>
-
Salvation Is By Faith In Jesus Christ
by Warner Pidgeon
Galatians 2:15-21
15 "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16 know that a man is 
not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, 
too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in 
Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one 
will be justified.
17 "If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we 
ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely 
not! 18 If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19 
For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I 
have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in 
me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who 
loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, 
for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for 
nothing!"
Sports days are upon us once again at our local schools and I had a sense of 
"been here before" when I was watching my son Matthew practicing his 
sprinting and his baton changing in the relay races at the Junior School 
this week. Some of the baton changes were smooth and effective, others were 
slow and unimpressive. As usual there was the occasional dropped baton but 
it was good to see that training was taking place. The baton is handed on 
much more effectively when training takes place and when there is a desire 
and a commitment to get it right! So it must be with our presentation of the 
Good News of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!
It's not easy for us to imagine the circumstances into which Paul was 
writing his letter to the Galatian Church, but there are clear principles 
which emerge for us concerning the way in which we teach, present and live 
out our faith in Jesus.
Back to the baton analogy there is a baton being passed from last Sunday to 
this Sunday: Last Sunday we looked at the close of Peter's Pentecost Sermon 
found in Acts Chapter 2. Peter preached the facts about the historical Jesus 
and that is the baton that has been passed on to us. It is the baton which 
we must pass on to this generation; and it is a baton which St. Paul was 
also running with as he wrote that "if righteousness could be gained through 
the law Christ died for nothing" (2:21)! In other words, if we can somehow 
save ourselves through our own efforts without relying upon the life, death, 
resurrection and example of Jesus then Christ died in vain.
Earlier in the chapter St. Paul refers to the occasion when he rebuked St. 
Peter (2:11). I am sure many of us prefer to avoid situations of conflict, 
but when truth is at stake it must not be avoided; and when right attitudes 
and actions are at stake then conflict within the Church must not be 
avoided.
Jesus did not avoid conflict. He ejected the money changers from the Temple 
(Luke 19: 45-46), he did things on the Sabbath which upset 'faithful' 
religious leaders, he confronted those who would only ever eat meals with 
people they liked (Luke 14: 12-14), he taught a certain rich man that he 
would need to surrender his riches and give to the poor and as a result the 
man became very sad (Luke 18:18-25) and he referred to the established 
religious leaders as "Blind leaders" and as a "brood of vipers". Jesus did 
not avoid conflict, but we should also remember that when he confronted 
wrong attitudes and actions he did so without sinning himself, for Jesus was 
without sin (Hebrews 4:15).
Why did Paul have to confront Peter? Peter had come to realise that non-Jews 
could become faithful followers of Jesus without submitting to all of the 
external matters of the law. He believed it and demonstrated it by eating 
"with the gentiles" (2:12).
However, under pressure from some Jewish Christians he withdrew from eating 
food with non-Jewish believers. His actions ceased to agree with what he 
knew to be correct (Acts 10:28). Paul therefore challenged Peter and he 
writes to the Galatian Church because they are in danger of abandoning the 
truth of the grace of Jesus and replacing it with a non-gospel based on 
external religious rituals and observances. It was a key moment in the life 
of the early Church and Paul affirms what we refer to as the Doctrine of 
Justification by faith in Christ (2:16). We are not saved by observing laws, 
rituals and requirements because we cannot keep all of them all of the time 
no matter how hard we try. The law is good and perfect and it tells us that 
we have fallen short of the glory of God. Only a trusting faith in Jesus can 
save us.
How are we doing at Christ Church with our baton? Are we passing on the 
truth of the faith passed to us?
Are there attitudes which we need to confront amongst ourselves in order to 
ensure that our beliefs and our actions are in agreement?
Do we really know and believe and act as though faith in Jesus is what saves 
us? Are there barriers to faith, or barriers to membership of the Church 
which need to be pulled down?
A friend was telling me recently of a Church that does not want to have 
single parents coming with their children to Church on a Sunday because it 
might send a wrong moral message! That Church also doesn't want people to 
come to worship if they have mental or physical problems, and they really 
don't like having babies in church because they are too noisy. If you agree 
with any of those then I will have to rebuke you! More importantly, is there 
anything which we do or believe which is not faithful to the truth that 
faith in Jesus saves us, and nothing else.
Faith in Jesus saves us; not baptism, not 'Confirmation', not the bread and 
wine of communion, not being an Anglican, not reading our Bible every day, 
not attending church services, not striving to uphold the 10 Commandments 
(even though they are good and holy), not giving lots of money to charity, 
not giving 10% of your income to Christ Church (even though I hope you do), 
and not being a respected and upright person in the local community etc. 
Faith in Jesus saves us.
God wants us to be a Church which faithfully passes on the baton. Let's do 
it together, proclaiming salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and nothing 
else. Amen!"
    @removethis_ajwerner: "news:fss6s2$b0v$<email_address>
<quote>
You should know that that is wrong. Salvation as you call it is by faith in
and study of the metaphysical concepts that the Christ being tried to teach
humanity. One of which is the Law of Attraction. See the movie The Secret or
google the Law of Attraction.
Unfortunately humanity decided to focus and worship the messenger instead of
the message. This is typical ego behaviour.
But fortunately now, many groups of people around the world in the new age
area are realising this mistake and are starting to set things straight.
Christianity as we know it will not continue for much longer.
<url>
Andrew W.
Christians say that atheists are arrogant.
If Christian wisdom is inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit then why
doesn't the Holy Spirit ever correct a Christian when they make a false
conclusion/claim about God's will? Such an occurrence has never been
documented. Do Christians assume that all their conclusions are correct?
Isn't that arrogance? And wouldn't this lead to a religion that ends up
believing all kinds of things that aren't true?
You must unlearn what you have learned. ~ Yoda
Channelled lessons about ET's, ascended masters like Jesus Christ, spirit
guides, earth changes.
<url>
The true Creator wants us to be happy and abundant.
<url>
Audio version. <url>
Think you know what ego is? Think again. The Bible is full of it!
<url>
Religion Exposed!
<url>"
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